Not This Year

With all the chaos and stress of this month I have decided not to celebrate my birthday this year. I think I can decide that - I'm of age! Maybe I will decide to have a birthday another year - but not this year. So that means I stay the same age right:)

The Ups and Downs of Kindergarten

As CJ's first year of school is coming to a close I have thinking of all that he has accomplished. The year started off much easier than I thought it would. It certainly was not without much anxiety from everyone - but he only tried to run home once (not every day like I thought!). He did cry - but not everyday like I thought. The tears were on random days. I thought there would be lots of meltdowns at school over someone making him do something he didn't want to do - he learned to hold it together. CJ did learn to raise his hand not blurt out and follow the teacher around. CJ did learn to be more independent and try to do things on his own before asking for help. He is reading, he has picked up both sight words and phonics. He is writing (still a bit labored) small moment stories and spelling tricky words correctly. He is solving math problems and counting by ones, twos, fives and tens. CJ loved his teacher this year and thanks to her didn't mind not being at home with dad all day.

The downs are a very important piece of school and for CJ more important than the academics. Friends - I don't think CJ has a grasp of that word and what it means- that social language is so hard for him. At such a young age, there are kids who laugh at him and he thinks they are laughing with him. He loves them - thinks they are funny. It breaks my heart.

The downs are where the school really let us and him down. For two years I have sat at every meeting and asked for the academic goals to be reduced and the social goals to be increased - no. And now this is where we are - CJ not understanding simple social language. We are going to have to start a fund to help us pay for the bills that are now piling up on us. Outside social skills groups, an autism specialist, an advocate, speech and language, OT....

But onward and upward we go - this week we will be fighting for CJ's rights at our most important meeting of the year. We are challenging many of the things the district has done and their assessments. If this meeting doesn't go our way then the next step is...well we will cross that bridge if we need to. For now, think of us on Wednesday afternoon as we fight for not just CJ, but for other children and parents in the same situation as us.

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